Partly I was honing my self-consciousness into a torture device, sharp and efficient enough to last me the rest of my life.

The general plot of life is sometimes shaped by the different ways genuine intelligence combines with equally genuine ignorance.

Anxiety and anticipation, I was to learn, are the essential ingredients in suffering from pain, as opposed to feeling pain pure and simple.

Part of the job of being human is to consistently underestimate our effect on other people.

Partly I was honing my self-consciousness into a torture device, sharp and efficient enough to last me the rest of my life.

When I tried to imagine being beautiful, I could only imagine living without the perpetual fear of being alone, without the great burden of isolation, which is what feeling ugly felt like.

Sometimes the briefest moments capture us, force us to take them in, and demand that we live the rest of our lives in reference to them.